When it comes to daring adventurers, the world has witnessed countless individuals who threw caution to the wind in pursuit of fabled realms. In fact, 10 real people have paid the ultimate price while hunting for cities of gold, hidden valleys, and secret paradises. Below, we count down those intrepid souls, from early Spanish conquistadors to modern treasure hunters, whose quests ended in tragedy.
10 Real People Who Chased Legends
10. Diego De Ordaz
Diego de Ordaz, born circa 1480, rose to fame as a Spanish soldier and explorer. He took part in Hernán Cortés’s 1519 conquest of Mexico, earning distinction for his role in the Battle of Centla against the Aztecs. Renowned for his grit, Ordaz became one of the first Europeans—alongside two companions—to summit the 5,426‑meter (17,802‑ft) Popocatépetl volcano, a feat that earned him a special coat of arms featuring the peak in 1525. Later, he served as governor of Paria in eastern Venezuela.
In the late 1520s, German financiers the Welser family commissioned daring expeditions into Venezuela’s interior, hoping to uncover a fabled city overflowing with gold—later christened El Dorado by the Spanish. Seizing the opportunity, Ordaz secured permission in 1531 to explore the massive Orinoco River. He pushed beyond the Meta River’s mouth but was forced to retreat when the ferocious Atures rapids proved impassable. Returning home in 1532, he clashed with the governor of Trinidad, was imprisoned, and died shortly thereafter, possibly from poisoning.
9. Philipp Von Hutten
Philipp von Hutten, born in 1505, emerged as a German adventurer during the mid‑16th‑century colonization of the Americas. From 1528 to 1546, Charles V granted the Welser family a concession over Venezuela, which the Germans dubbed Klein‑Venedig. As rumors of El Dorado swelled in the 1530s, von Hutten joined a force of more than 600 explorers led by Georg von Speyer to hunt for the hidden treasure deep within the jungle. Their grueling journeys between 1535 and 1538 took them to the headwaters of the Japurá River near the equator, yet they uncovered no riches.
After Speyer’s death in 1540, von Hutten was promoted to captain‑general of Venezuela. In August 1541 he set out from Coro, crossing the Río Bermejo with a small band of horsemen. A clash with a large contingent of Omagua natives left him seriously wounded. The surviving few, including banking magnate Bartholomäus VI Welser, returned to Coro only to be captured and beheaded by Spanish conquistador Juan de Carvajal, prompting the Welser colony’s eventual withdrawal.
8. Sir Walter Raleigh
Sir Walter Raleigh, an English writer, poet, soldier, and explorer, became one of history’s most celebrated treasure hunters. Born in 1552 to a Protestant family, he began his New World voyages in 1578 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I in 1585. By 1594, whispers of a “City of Gold” in South America reached his ears. In 1595 he partnered with Antonio de Berrio to search for the mythical Lake Parime in the Guiana highlands—the alleged site of El Dorado, which Raleigh believed to be a city called Manoa. The expedition yielded nothing.
After Queen Elizabeth’s death in March 1603, Raleigh was arrested in July for conspiring against her successor, James I. He spent thirteen years imprisoned in the Tower of London before being released in 1616 and granted a second chance to hunt for Manoa, this time accompanied by his son Walt and longtime friend Lawrence Keymis. Early in the journey, Keymis defied Raleigh’s orders and attacked a Spanish outpost, resulting in Walt’s death. Distraught, Raleigh turned back to England. The Spanish ambassador demanded his execution for violating the peace treaty, and a frustrated King James finally obliged in October 1618.
7. Juan Ponce De Leon
Juan Ponce de Leon, a Spanish explorer and conquistador, is forever linked with the legend of the Fountain of Youth. Born in 1474, he first set foot in the Americas at age 19 on Christopher Columbus’s second expedition. Quickly rising through military and political ranks, he quelled a tribal rebellion on Hispaniola by his late twenties and was appointed governor of Puerto Rico in 1508. In 1513 he ventured further north, reaching the coast of what is now Florida.
Although the tale of a life‑giving fountain had circulated long before his voyage, historians note that the first explicit account linking Ponce de Leon to the quest appeared only after his death, in Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés’s 1535 work Historia general y natural de las Indias, which claimed he sought a cure for sexual impotence via the “waters of Bimini.” Scholar Arne Molander suggests Ponce may have been after a Bahamian love vine—used as an aphrodisiac—misinterpreting the native word vid (“vine”) for vida (“life”). On his final 1521 Florida expedition, Ponce and his men were ambushed by Calusa warriors; a poison‑tipped arrow struck his thigh, killing him.
6. Percy Fawcett
Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, a British surveyor, archaeologist, geographer, and cartographer, inspired countless Hollywood adventurers, including Indiana Jones. He joined the Royal Geographical Society in 1901 to master mapmaking and later served the British Secret Service in North Africa. His inaugural South American expedition in 1906 aimed to chart a border jungle between Bolivia and Brazil for the RGS, followed by six more ventures up to 1924.
By 1914, Fawcett had formulated a theory—based on extensive research—about a lost city he named “Z.” In 1925 he led a three‑man team, comprising his son Jack and longtime friend Raleigh Rimell, into Brazil’s untamed Mato Grasso jungle to locate the fabled Z. The trio vanished without a trace, and over the ensuing decades roughly a hundred people have died or disappeared while searching for them. Modern scholars suspect Fawcett’s “Z” may have been inspired by the sprawling archaeological complex of Kuhikugu, uncovered in the early 21st century, which covered 19,900 km² (7,700 mi²) and once housed over 50,000 inhabitants.
5. Francisco Vazquez de Coronado
Born in 1510, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado became a Spanish explorer and conquistador, eventually governing New Galia, a north‑western Mexican province, by his late twenties. During his tenure, he caught wind of the “Seven Golden Cities of Cibola,” rumored to lie north along the Pacific and to possess streets paved with gold. In 1540 he organized an enormously costly expedition, fielding hundreds of Spaniards and indigenous allies, to traverse much of North America’s uncharted terrain, dividing his forces into land and sea contingents.
Between 1540 and 1542, Coronado trekked from Mexico through present‑day Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Kansas. In June 1540 he believed he had found the first Cibola, only to discover the remote Zuni pueblo of Hawikuh, whose inhabitants resisted his domination. Continuing into spring 1541, he encountered only scattered villages, never the glittering cities of gold he sought. Upon returning to Mexico, accusations of incompetence led to his bankruptcy. He died in 1554 of an infectious disease, scarred and broken by his misguided quest. Nonetheless, Coronado and his men earned credit as the first Europeans to glimpse the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River’s mouth.
4. Admiral Richard E. Byrd
United States naval officer Richard E. Byrd was a world‑class explorer and aviation pioneer who led daring missions across the Atlantic, Arctic, and Antarctic. He entered World I as a pilot in 1917, earning a promotion to lieutenant a year later. Byrd’s passion for flight spurred several breakthroughs in aerial navigation. In 1926 he became the first to fly over the North Pole, returning a hero and receiving the Medal of Honor from President Calvin Coolidge, followed by a promotion to commander. He later spearheaded three South‑Pole expeditions—in 1928, 1934, and 1939—demonstrating an uncanny fascination with Earth’s extremities.
During the 1960s, Dr. Raymond Bernard authored the controversial book The Hollow Earth, claiming the poles served as gateways to a subterranean realm teeming with undiscovered continents and inhabitants. He bolstered his argument with observations that the poles were warmer than regions up to 1,600 km (1,000 mi) away and that tropical birds migrated north in winter. Bernard and fellow theosophists alleged that Byrd searched for—and perhaps discovered—an entrance to this hidden world, only to die shortly thereafter from congestive heart failure induced by extreme cold. Most historians dismiss the tale as conspiracy‑laden nonsense, yet the book’s longevity suggests some still entertain the notion of Byrd’s secret motives.
3. The Naxi People
The Naxi (also known as Nakhi or Nashi) are an ethnic group inhabiting the Himalayan foothills of China’s Yunnan province. Dominating the region is the 5,596‑meter (18,360‑ft) Yulong Snow Mountain, or Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, whose massive massif forms the core of the larger Yulong range to the north. A cable car lifts tourists to 4,506 meters (14,784 ft) above sea level, granting sweeping vistas of the surrounding terrain. Hidden somewhere among the mountain’s crags is the legendary paradise of Shangri‑La, first described in James Hilton’s 1933 novel Lost Horizon.
Ancient Buddhist scriptures have long spoken of concealed realms, such as the seven secret cities known as the Nghe‑Beyul Khembalung. Unsurprisingly, the Naxi maintain their own lore on locating Shangri‑La. According to tradition, young couples who commit suicide by leaping from Yulong Snow Mountain will enter Shangri‑La and enjoy eternal happiness. Tragically, many have acted on this belief; news reports as recent as 2015 recount tourists riding the cable car only to jump to their deaths.
2. Robert Restall
Robert Restall was an excavator drawn to Nova Scotia’s enigmatic Oak Island in 1959 after hearing rumors of a pirate’s buried treasure. Legends claimed the island concealed Marie Antoinette’s jewels, original Shakespearean manuscripts, and rare religious relics, hidden within a network of booby‑trapped tunnels built over sinkholes that would flood if disturbed. Two men from earlier digs had already perished: one was badly burned when a water‑pump boiler exploded, and another fell to his death when a rope slipped off a pulley.
Undeterred, Restall signed a contract with the property owner, arriving with partner Karle Graeser, his teenage son, and a crew. On August 17 1965 he was sealing a storm drain when a faulty engine released poisonous hydrogen‑sulfide fumes, rendering him unconscious. His son attempted a rescue but also lost consciousness. Graeser and two other workers descended to aid them, yet only one worker emerged alive. In total, Restall, his son, his partner, and the other worker all perished. Local legend holds that seven deaths must occur before Oak Island’s treasure is revealed; Restall’s team accounted for six, and no further fatalities have been recorded since.
1. Adolph Ruth
Adolph Ruth was an East‑Coast veterinarian with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal Husbandry, and an amateur explorer obsessed with locating the fabled Lost Dutchman Mine—rumored to hold 19th‑century prospector Jacob Waltz’s hidden riches. Through his son Edwin, Ruth acquired maps suggesting the mine lay in San Diego County’s Borrego Desert. In 1914 father and son ventured to California but returned empty‑handed. Five years later they tried again, only for Ruth to fall from a steep ravine, fracturing his thighbone and resulting in a permanent limp.
A 1895 San Francisco Chronicle article titled “One of Arizona’s Lost El Dorados” and a newly discovered map redirected Ruth’s quest toward the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix. He set out alone in 1931 with the fresh map, vanished without a trace, and his body was found the following winter—shot twice in the skull. Authorities speculated murder for the map, which he did not possess at his death. Ruth may be the most renowned individual to die hunting the Lost Dutchman Mine, though some sources claim more than 500 explorers have shared his fate, including modern treasure hunter Jesse Capen, who disappeared in Tonto National Forest in 2009 and was found three years later at the bottom of a chasm.